'Masters of Sex' Costumer: 1950's Underwear Is 'Better Than Anything Out There'

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Mad Men and Masters of Sex have nothing in common save for the era (late '50s, early '60s) in which they take place—which means that their spot-on historically accurate costumes actually look alike. So Masters of Sex costume designer (and former ELLE editor) Ane Crabtree had her work cut out for her in creating a look that many viewers might be overly familiar with after years of Janie Bryant's brilliant costumes for Mad Men. How to make the late '50s fresh, once again?

We chatted with Crabtree to discuss her approach to costumes on the show, 1950s underwear, and new cast member (and former Breaking Bad star) Betsy Ann Brandt's strange request.

Do you ever worry about characters looking too polished or styled on a show like this?

Things can look too perfect on Caitlin because she's model-thin and glorious looking. I want to make her interesting and not perfect. So often I will start with something that's perfect on her and I will take away from that. I will detract or deconstruct in some way, whether it's emotionally, visually, or psychologically. That's really important to me. Caitlin's character is actually very complicated. She's not what she appears to be. The dress was beautiful but I also hope it keeps an image in your mind of what's to come. This different path she's going to take that is contrasting to Masters'. That's a little season tease for you.

That was a pretty incredible blue dress that Libby Masters wore in the premiere of season two last week.

The truth is that I did not design that dress. I re-designed that dress [in that shade of blue] because that color on Libby is so perfect. I knew that we would be in this ballroom and the director of the episode is an amazing visionary and he's very kind to me in terms of showing off the clothing. So it's not all me! There was something about that color that was very Tiffany blue, very classic. I wanted her to stand apart from everyone in the scene and I wanted her to be slightly sad. Like beauty tinged with sadness. She going through so much in the first episode, but she's keeping up appearances.

Quite often they're wearing a very padded bullet-type bra. We always take them in a little bit because they can feel a little bit abstract in the clothing. That's not our show. So they wear the bra and it hooks onto a very thick, industrial girdle. For Caitlin, I do a longer one because she's so tall. A lot of the vintage girdles were too short. So we started giving her longer ones so she can stand more erect and feels constrained in a way that's good for her character. Women of that time were held back and in a bizarre way I think that helps Lizzy and Caitlin when they're getting ready. They say, "I need my long-line bra and my girdle." Every time. I bought one for myself this season. I said to myself, "I can no longer ask these women to put these on in 90-degree heat without knowing what it feels like." And actually it does make you stand very tall. It holds like nobody's business. It's better than anything modern that's out there.

How did you come up with Allison Janney's bedroom look?

I did quite a lot of turquoise on Allison because it was just a perfect color for her skin and hair. It was about the Scullys having trouble and perhaps her starting anew. We see that her husband has gone through this self-awareness that's so painful and he wants to leave the world. For me, it was about cutting off Margaret's character and allowing her to grow in a different direction. That relationship was so beautiful and heartbreaking.

Yes and no. Only if the scene calls for it for me. I don't say "Only this color on this person." But I have to tell you, Betsy Brandt from Breaking Bad is on our show this season. I've never seen it, although it's my mother's favorite. So I had no idea that Betsy's character on that show was always in purple. It's a color that's not on a lot of folks on Masters of Sex so I put some purple in her dressing room the first day I met her. She was like, "Um, can I talk to you?" She said, "I am so open to everything except I've just done years of purple on Breaking Bad and everyone knows me for it." So we took away purple. So you will not see purple on Betsy Brandt in Masters of Sex. But I love her so it's okay that I can't put purple on her.